Review: Toccoa Riverside Restaurant
It has been almost a year since the restaurant burned down and we have all been waiting for the reopening anxiously.
Being a regular customer for 15 years, I must say that I missed our weekly night out at the restaurant where we had lots of friends and you were always likely to run into people you knew at the next table.
To begin with, let me say that the new building looks great. It is very open with vaulted ceilings and lots of room. A new dedicated bar is a nice touch and the outdoor dining deck has removable plastic walls that can be lowered in the winter to keep the outdoor heaters warmth in, and then raised in the summer to provide that outdoor dining experience. The deck is covered so in the heat of the summer, you can still eat in the shade. Everything is fresh and new and the staff is enthusiastic and friendly. Some of the faces from before had disappeared, but that was to be expected since few people can afford to take a year off from work during the rebuilding.
Unfortunately that was where the good part of the visit ended. After patronizing the place for 15 years, I had a very nice routine established. I ordered a Ribeye dish that came with two veggie sides, and a trip to the salad bar. The meal was on the menu for about $15 and the final cost was usually just over $25 after the tip. I was pleased to see the same Ribeye on the menu, but it was now $20, only included one veggie side and no salad. If you wanted a salad, you had to pay extra and they made a "house salad" in the kitchen and brought a pitifully meager collection of some lettuce, a couple of cucumbers and a single onion ring with a quartet of grape-tomatoes out to you. Before, you could go to the salad bar and make a salad you could enjoy and be proud of. And the worst of all was that the steak was dry, bland with almost no flavor. I had to ask for some steak sauce only to be informed that they didn't have any (the shipment had not come in yet...ever hear of a grocery store?)
So we pay more, and get less. That is not a good way to win back customers, if you ask me. It doesn't matter how nice the place looks or if you are now using fancy square plates. I like the owner. We have been acquainted for some time. I would like to think that this was just a bad day, so we plan to go back again in a month or two. But if things remain like this, we will find another place to have date-night.
Being a regular customer for 15 years, I must say that I missed our weekly night out at the restaurant where we had lots of friends and you were always likely to run into people you knew at the next table.
To begin with, let me say that the new building looks great. It is very open with vaulted ceilings and lots of room. A new dedicated bar is a nice touch and the outdoor dining deck has removable plastic walls that can be lowered in the winter to keep the outdoor heaters warmth in, and then raised in the summer to provide that outdoor dining experience. The deck is covered so in the heat of the summer, you can still eat in the shade. Everything is fresh and new and the staff is enthusiastic and friendly. Some of the faces from before had disappeared, but that was to be expected since few people can afford to take a year off from work during the rebuilding.
Unfortunately that was where the good part of the visit ended. After patronizing the place for 15 years, I had a very nice routine established. I ordered a Ribeye dish that came with two veggie sides, and a trip to the salad bar. The meal was on the menu for about $15 and the final cost was usually just over $25 after the tip. I was pleased to see the same Ribeye on the menu, but it was now $20, only included one veggie side and no salad. If you wanted a salad, you had to pay extra and they made a "house salad" in the kitchen and brought a pitifully meager collection of some lettuce, a couple of cucumbers and a single onion ring with a quartet of grape-tomatoes out to you. Before, you could go to the salad bar and make a salad you could enjoy and be proud of. And the worst of all was that the steak was dry, bland with almost no flavor. I had to ask for some steak sauce only to be informed that they didn't have any (the shipment had not come in yet...ever hear of a grocery store?)
So we pay more, and get less. That is not a good way to win back customers, if you ask me. It doesn't matter how nice the place looks or if you are now using fancy square plates. I like the owner. We have been acquainted for some time. I would like to think that this was just a bad day, so we plan to go back again in a month or two. But if things remain like this, we will find another place to have date-night.